Thursday, April 3, 2025

April 3, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Trump touts return of the 'American Dream' in historic tariff announcement . . . President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs during a highly anticipated "Make America Wealthy Again" event, which he said will restore the American dream and bolster jobs for U.S. workers. "American steel workers, auto workers, farmers and skilled craftsmen," Trump said from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday afternoon. "We have a lot of them here with us today. They really suffered, gravely. They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once-beautiful American dream." Fox News

What to know about President Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs

US tech, retail stocks lead rout after tariff shock

Senate Passes Resolution Terminating Tariffs Against Canada . . . A group of Republican senators voted along with Democrats on Wednesday for a resolution to undo President Trump's 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports, dealing an embarrassing blow to Trump. Four Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.) — voted for the measure. The Hill

Politics

Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain Was 'Startled' by his Mental Decline Before Trump Debate . . . In the days leading up to his disastrous June debate with Donald Trump, then-president Joe Biden appeared "extremely exhausted" and "unaware of what was happening in his own campaign," longtime Biden aide Ron Klain reveals in a new book. Klain, the White House chief of staff from 2021 to 2023, was "startled" by Biden's declining mental and physical state when he went back to work for the octogenarian president in June 2024, according to excerpts from Chris Whipple's upcoming book Uncharted published in the Guardian. Washington Free Beacon

New FBI chat logs reveal 'gag order' senior leadership used to shut down Hunter Biden laptop discussion . . . New chat logs released by the House Judiciary Committee this week show the extraordinary lengths the FBI went to behind the scenes to shut down any discussion of Hunter Biden's laptop in October 2020 after The New York Post broke the story. The conversations show that senior leadership issued an internal "gag order" on the laptop. The FBI had been in possession of the abandoned MacBook Pro for 10 months by that stage, after computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac handed it over and warned of the potential crimes and national security concerns he had found. New York Post

Musk could be headed for a Washington exit after turbulent times at Trump's DOGE . . . Elon Musk recently suggested that he will be done with his work in the near future. President Donald Trump told reporters this week that "at some point, he's going to be going back" to running his companies. As far as the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump said "it will end." The White House has not disclosed any clear timeline for closing down DOGE. But it could be reaching a conclusion faster than anticipated. DOGE was originally intended to operate until July 4, 2026. Associated Press

It would be a shame if left-wing attempts to destroy his cars and his company are forcing Musk to get out. And it would be even worse if the Deep State is reasserting itself with the new Cabinet secretaries starting to protect their fiefdoms.

DeSantis Slams Rep. Randy Fine for 'Underperformance' in Florida Elections . . . Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called out newly elected Rep. Randy Fine for "an underperformance by more than 50%" despite Florida Republicans winning two key special elections for the U.S. House Tuesday. During a Wednesday interview on Fox News' "America's Newsroom," DeSantis said he thinks Fine "was in dire straits a few weeks ago" due to his record of being "a squish Republican." Daily Signal

Culture

Radical Transgender Bill In Colorado: It's 'Coercive Control' To Not Affirm Child's Gender Identity . . . Parents in custody battles who misgender or "deadname" their child would be accused of "coercive control" under a new radical Colorado bill. The bill was introduced late Friday evening and on Tuesday it passed the Colorado Assembly's Judiciary Committee in a 7-4 vote. It now heads to the Assembly floor for a second reading. The "Kelly Loving Act," named for a trans-identifying man who was killed in the 2022 Colorado nightclub shooting, targets parents who do not affirm their child's new gender identity. Daily Wire

Trump Admin Freezes Maine's Federal Funds Over Men In Women's Sports . . . The United States Department of Agriculture told Maine on Wednesday that it has frozen the state's federal funding over Maine's refusal to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order on men in women's sports. In a letter first obtained by The Daily Wire, the USDA warned Maine, "you cannot openly violate federal law against discrimination in education and expect federal funding to continue unabated." Daily Wire

DeSantis Cracks Down on Colleges Repackaging DEI Despite Florida Ban . . . Some college administrators have "repurposed DEI under a different banner" and "think they can get away with it" despite anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion laws Florida passed in May 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday. "We're making sure, yes, we don't have DEI, but you can't just rename it and do it," DeSantis told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "We actually had a professor at University of South Florida that was shown the door because they violated Florida law." The Daily Signal

National Security

Rebekah Koffler: The CIA's Role in the Russia-Ukraine War

FBI Recruiting Soars As Patel Takes Control . . . In the first full month after Kash Patel was confirmed as FBI director on February 20, the FBI received a record number of new agent applications. 5,577 new applications were filed in March, after 2023 saw a monthly average of 2,797 applications, and 2024's monthly average was 3,383. The most recent month that saw a number approximating March was April 2016, when 5,283 applications were filed, Fox News reported. Daily Wire

Money

Mark Zuckerberg Lobbies Trump to Avoid Meta Antitrust Trial . . . Meta and its representatives have met with the president and his senior advisers ahead of an April 14 Federal Trade Commission trial that could force the company to unwind its acquisition of the messaging platform WhatsApp and image-sharing app Instagram. The terms of a potential settlement weren't immediately clear. Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, was at the White House on Wednesday, his third visit during Trump's presidency, the people said. Some of Trump's aides have grown frustrated at the company's lobbying strategy, believing it has been too aggressive, some of the people said. Wall Street Journal

He shouldn't be acting as his own lobbyist. He's too annoying.

The New Pepsi Challenge: Saving Pepsi From Years of Decline . . . Since taking charge of PepsiCo's all-important U.S. beverage business in February 2024, Pepsi chief Ram Krishnan has been trying to fix a big problem. The U.S. market share for Pepsi's classic cola—which once aspired to overtake Coca-Cola's as the nation's favorite soda—had slipped to No. 3, behind Dr Pepper. And some of the company's other drinks, including Gatorade, had been steadily bleeding market share. Wall Street Journal

People took the "Pepsi Challenge," and Pepsi lost.

Guilty Pleasures

Everyone Wants to Raise Chickens, but Egg-Layers Can Be Bad Neighbors . . . Carol Lewis has no regrets about how she voted on the chicken issue. As a longtime member of the St. Cloud, Minn., city council, she'd heard all the arguments. At a December meeting, locals argued backyard chickens would offer a cheaper source of eggs. One resident said chickens would simply be "awesome." Lewis, who left the council this year, was unmoved. "We can't even seem to get people to mow their lawns these days. I don't know how we're going to keep chicken coops clean," she told the crowd before voting "nay" on the measure, which would have allowed backyard chickens at some homes. Wall Street Journal

Every fox on the council voted in favor of the measure.

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